Still feeling OK with no after effects after yesterdays ride I took the opportunity to pedal the bridleways of the South Downs again late this morning.

Yesterdays ride was fairly short with an undulating vertical profile. Today I wanted to get a longer ride under my belt that would provide a gentle challenge. So I chose to head out for Chanctonbury Ring from Shoreham-by-Sea. The ride started at sea level and from there it is basically a gradual climb for over 6 miles up to a height of around 220m. The paths are mostly chalky and in good condition but there are some heavily rutted sections holding water and gloop to keep to wary.

Once at Chanctonbury I made my way down to Cissbury Ring – a long flat chalky descent – and then one clockwise circuit round the outside of Cissbury. I like the circuit as it is made up of a number climbs and descents on ground that can catch you out if you are not careful – only one of the climbs can be called steep – but they are good training and it is always nice to ride.

The path round the southern face of Cissbury Ring – looking west

From Cissbury it was back to Lancing Ring where I chose a downhill path I don’t ever recall taking. It took me down to the top of Lancing Manor. From there I just had to go and say hello to the sea and pedal a few easy blacktop miles back to Shoreham.

As with yesterday I recorded the ride with two different GPS systems and lo and behold I am seeing the same sort of differences – one tags the ride shorter by 0.4 mile while it adds 0ver 30% to the ascent – weird. So the ride was somewhere between 21.15 miles and 21.55 miles with an ascent of between 447m and 604m. I am pretty pleased but the tiredness is starting to hit!